


A Stunning Lack of Maturity

by Ladytalon



Category: Day Break
Genre: F/M, Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-09
Updated: 2010-06-09
Packaged: 2017-10-10 00:32:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/93304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladytalon/pseuds/Ladytalon





	A Stunning Lack of Maturity

  
**A/N:** Independence Day fic, ten days late :D Fits right in with _An Internal Affair_

  


  


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Andrea smiled over at Chad as he circled around the front of the car to wrap his free arm around her shoulders. "So, is everyone showing up later or something? I only see a few cars," she said, looking around as she tried to balance the vegetable tray she held in her arms.

"They probably parked in back – one year we accidentally set a neighbor's convertible on fire," Chad remarked, snapping his gum as he glanced behind them. "I'll move ours later."

Laurel Shelten burst out of the front door with a glad cry of, "_Andrea! _" and came up to grab the tray from Andrea's hands and shove it at Chad, who nearly dropped the two bags he was carrying in an effort to balance his new burden. Andrea returned Laurel's embrace and allowed herself to be hustled into the house. "Look, everyone – it's Andrea!" Chad's mother called out excitedly.

"Nice to see you too, Mom," Chad said sarcastically.

Rebecca and Annie came over to give her welcoming hugs and admire her outfit, and Megan winked at her from where she was at the sink rinsing strawberries. Chad came in behind her to sit his armload of groceries down on the counter, and his older sister grinned over at him. "You really can leave him home next time and just come by yourself, Andy," Megan teased. "After all, you're the only one we really want t-hey!" Chad reached for the faucet and bent the attachment up quickly so that it sprayed at her, then stole a strawberry before she could slap his hand. "Hey!"

"What in the blue blazes is going on in here?" James Shelten asked as he poked his head through the door to eye his family mock-sternly. "Oh, Andrea's here! How are you doing, sweetheart?"

Chad just folded his arms across his chest and shook his head at being ignored yet again. "They like you better than they like me."

"Poor baby," Rebecca cooed at him.

Annie chimed in with, "Awww, does widdle Chaddie feel left ouuuuuut?"

"They're ganging up on me again, Mom," Chad complained.

Andrea laughed as Laurel stood on tiptoe so that she could kiss his cheek. "Poor thing. Now start taking the food outside to the tables, please. While he's doing that, let's get changed into our swim suits, girls…"

Chad obediently moved to gather up the indicated dishes and took them outside to the backyard where his father was setting up the grill, and Andrea helped take the beer pitchers out as soon as she changed into her bikini and cut-off shorts. "What've you got there?" she asked curiously, pointing to the basket of rolls he was carrying.

He winked lasciviously at her. "Just a whole lotta love for-_ooooof! _"

Andrea jumped in startlement as Andrew appeared from out of nowhere to blind-side Chad, knocking him flat on the grass and sending the rolls flying every which way. "Hey, Andy!" Chad's cousin greeted cheerfully as he leaped to his feet and sprinted away around the corner of the house.

"Oh my god - are you okay?" she gasped, dropping to her knees beside her dazed lover. It hadn't been that long since he'd gotten out of the hospital, after all, and Andrew had hit him pretty hard.

Chad blinked and pushed himself off the ground slowly, wheezing. "I'm fine." He looked around in dismay. "Damn it."

"Don't worry about it – they look like the ones you buy at the store. Worst comes to worst, we can just go get some more." She helped him gather them up and reached up to pluck a blade of grass from his hair. "Why don't you take these back in, and I'll ask your dad to keep an eye out for Andrew?"

Andrea sent him back to the house with a kiss to smooth his ruffled feathers, and continued with the pitchers to the backyard. "James? Andrew is running around loose again… would you mind just keeping a lookout?"

Chad's father looked up curiously, but nodded. "Sure thing." He smiled and pointed to where Andrew was creeping around the fence. "Like right now? He's over there."

She drew breath to shout at the other man, but he was already running at top speed around the bushes. Seconds later, they both heard a wild yell and saw a bowl of salad go flying in the air; Andrea sighed and ran to peer over the fence at Chad, who was sprawled on the grass with a furious expression on his face. "Damn it!"

"Did he get you again, sweetie?" she asked sympathetically.

"No, I was just doing some impromptu sunbathing," he said sarcastically. "I thought you were supposed to warn me!" He looked pretty cute when he was mad, Andrea thought with a smile. "And it's not funny," Chad insisted.

"Of course it's not."

"It _absolutely_ isn't," he said in a cross tone that nearly made her start laughing.

The big lieutenant picked himself up off the ground and scowled at the grass stains on his shirt, and she went back to visiting with James who just shook his head and sighed when Andrea reported back. "Those two will be at each other's throats until the day they die – the time Andrew tried to convince Chad that Laurie and I named him after the Chadwick's of Boston mail-order catalog… that was something, let me tell you!" James shook his head again.

"I know he can take care of himself – well, to a point anyway – but he doesn't need another trip to the hospital," Andrea said, scowling over at Andrew who was trying to sneak around the side of the house again. "I just don't think he's ready to get back to his normal…activities…with Andrew just yet."

Chad's father promised to have a word with Andrew "for all the good it will do" and Andrea drifted off towards the pool where Rebecca and Megan were talking with their husbands. Annie came trotting out of the house to join them and they struck up a debate on whether or not the Shelten patriarch would blow anything up on the grill – including himself. "I can hear you," James yelled over, brandishing his spatula at them threateningly.

"So, Andy – when're you gonna make an honest man out of Chad?" Megan asked, smiling over at her.

"Is that even possible?" Becky wondered aloud.

Andrea shook her head and shifted on her towel to get more comfortable. "It's not really something we've discussed," she admitted. "I'm not really worried about it, anyway."

"You just like living in sin," Annie joked and was about to go further when another loud yell coming from the direction of the house made them all sit up. "Oh, no – not again. Anyone who doesn't want to get wet, you'd better move away from the pool," she said urgently.

Chad came tearing around the corner of the house with Andrew in hot pursuit and Andrea was just wondering why he was so intent on running away when James opened the gate to leave and the younger men went barreling past him into the yard. She shook her head when Chad suddenly dropped to the ground and rolled onto his back, bracing his shoulders and shoving his feet up into Andrew's stomach; the other man didn't stop in time and his momentum as well as Chad's 'assistance' carried him completely over his cousin and into the pool. Andrea shook her head as Chad scrambled to his feet and started laughing at the angry expression on the other man's face as he headed back into the house.

"What's going on out here?" Chad's mother asked as she walked up. "_What_ are you doing in there with your clothes on, Andrew?"

Andrew climbed out of the pool, looking like he was planning a murder. "Sorry, Aunt Laurel…"

The rest of the day passed with the two men still trying their luck at killing each other, until Andrea finally decided to step in after a spontaneous wrestling match ended with Chad being struck across the shoulders by a lawn chair. "Grow up, the both of you," she yelled angrily. "Andrew, you go over there and _stay_ there – you know perfectly well that he's got metal pins in his spine! And _you_, Chad," she rounded on her surprised boyfriend "_you_ know better than that! How old are you, again? Sit down and leave him alone! I'm not taking you to the hospital again!"

Chad dropped into the indicated chair immediately, then looked embarrassed at his instant obedience when his sisters started laughing. "You tell 'em, Andy!" Meg hooted. Laurel simply folded her arms across her chest and nodded at James with a smug look on her face.

"I need to re-park the car," Chad announced a few minutes later, standing up. His eyes rested on her challengingly and she was hard put not to smile at the fact that he was waiting for permission, so Andrea simply nodded and looked away quickly as he walked off.

"I'll go make sure the neighbors have re-parked theirs, too," Andrew offered helpfully.

"Nuh-uh. Sit down," she said with a warning shake of her head.

Chad came back with a sly look on his face, but refused to tell her what was so entertaining. "Isn't it about time to set the table, Mom?" he asked, avoiding Andrea's eyes. "I'll do it."

"Thank you, sweetheart," Laurel said, beaming up at him.

"What's going on?" Andrea asked when she followed him into the house.

Chad still refused to look in her eyes. "Nothing – why would anything be going on?"

She found out exactly twenty minutes later, when they were all sitting down to eat and Andrew had just lifted a forkful of potato salad to his mouth. Megan's son trotted up to his mother and began shifting from one foot to the other, looking over at Chad. "Mommy, Susan spilled her Kool Aid," David announced with a big smile.

"Oh, Lord – I knew I shouldn't have given her that large cup," Meg sighed, climbing to her feet and going over to the kids table. Andrea's eyebrows arched as David gave Chad a thumbs-up sign from behind Andrew's chair and followed his mother back to the other table.

Seconds later, they were all startled by the unexpected loud bangs of a string of M-80s going off underneath Andrew and Chad's cousin fell out of his chair with a rather high-pitched scream of surprise. "What in the world…?" Laurel gasped, mopping at the spilled sangria that was seeping all over the table.

Andrew climbed to his feet and glared around the table. "Okay, who the hell did that?"

Chad's shoulders were shaking with mirth when Andrea glared over at him, and she slapped at his bicep irritably. "Damn it, Chad! You made me spill my drink!"

"I'm gonna get you for that, Chadwick," Andrew threatened angrily.

"Don't call me that," Chad replied automatically.

"Settle _down_, both of you," James interrupted. "If you two can't behave like the grown men you're supposed to be, we'll send you to the children's table where you obviously belong."

"Sorry, Dad."

"Sorry, Uncle James."

After the table had been cleared off and the leftovers put away, the family gathered on the front lawn to, as Annie put it, "blow shit up" and Chad slid an arm around Andrea's shoulders as he settled down beside her. "Are you done being a dumbass for the day?" she asked, leaning against him lovingly.

"As long as he doesn't start anything else," Chad promised. He gripped her chin between his thumb and forefinger and had just touched his lips to hers when Andrew ran past and threw a lit firecracker at him. Chad leaped up to knock it out of his lap just as it exploded and burned his hand. "Goddammit!" Andrea sighed as he snatched up a handful of something-or-others along with a lighter and headed off in pursuit of his cousin. "You're goin' down, you stupid…" Andrea sighed and moved to sit with her back against a tree trunk so that she had a good vantage point of the fireworks the others were setting off, shaking her head at the occasional explosions and yelps of pain coming from the backyard.

"So, do you think he'll grow up any time soon?" she asked Annie, who came to sit beside her.

Her friend grinned and jerked her head over to where Andrew was frantically trying to dislodge a sparkler from inside his shirt while Chad held his stomach and laughed. "What do _you_ think?"

~_fin_~  
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